Manchester City and manager Pep Guardiola are wrestling with the biggest crisis they have faced since the Catalan arrived at Etihad Stadium in 2016.
As the scrutiny grows, a rare question is now being asked – have Manchester City's transfer and recruitment strategists taken their eyes off the ball after a period of unprecedented success?
Have they been caught out by failing to future-proof as the silverware piled up?
After years of almost flawless planning to maintain domestic domination and finally claim the Champions League crown in 2023, the golden hand that guided City in the transfer market does not seem quite so assured.
Since Guardiola joined in 2016, their total spend is £1.38bn, while the net spend of £525m is evidence of the club's ability to maximise sales and monetise their elite academy set-up.
The acquisitions of the phenomenon that is Erling Haaland and Croatia defender Josko Gvardiola cannot be questioned; young talent of the highest quality who were coveted by every club in Europe.
Jack Grealish's fortunes have fluctuated - he has one City goal in 2024 - after his £100m move from Aston Villa but he still played a key role when the treble of the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup was won in 2023.
Manuel Akanji has unquestionably been a bargain after his move from Borussia Dortmund for about £15m.
Question marks, however, hang elsewhere – particularly over the wisdom of letting Cole Palmer join Chelsea for £40m then sanctioning the sale of Argentina's World Cup-winning forward Julian Alvarez to Atletico Madrid.
It has left City's squad looking as vulnerable as at any time under Guardiola, leaving some of the decision-making under the microscope.
Kalvin Phillips' six-year £45m deal from Leeds in July 2022 resulted in just two league starts, playing only 380 minutes in the top flight, before being loaned to West Ham United then Ipswich Town.
Matheus Nunes came from Wolverhampton Wanderers for £53m in September 2023 but has made little impact. The 26-year-old started only seven Premier League games in his first season and three in this.
Jeremy Doku is a talented work in progress at just 22, but the £55m capture from Rennes in August 2023 has had injuries recently and only started 18 league games last season.
Guardiola, however, was clearly happy with the size and quality of his squad last summer. He only signed Brazil winger Savinho for up to £30m then brought back Gundogan when he fell from favour at Barcelona.
Has this now been exposed as a mistake given the squad looks bare because of injury?
Guardiola prefers to work with a tighter squad of elite players and is notoriously reluctant to keep those who may wish to move on - often dispensing with them ruthlessly. But there has been an exodus of talent from Etihad Stadium that now looks like it could be returning to haunt the champions.
Chief among them is Palmer, who was agitating to move in his search for regular game time, but has been such a resounding success at Chelsea that privately Guardiola may wonder whether should he have stood firm.
Palmer was involved in 45 games for Chelsea last season, scoring 25 goals. He scored 22 of those in the Premier League, second only to Haaland's 27. He has already scored seven goals in 14 appearances this season.
Alvarez, so often the hard-working and selfless foil to Haaland, has also been missed as City search for the cutting edge that has been missing this season. He was a potent combination of work-rate and threat under Guardiola, scoring 17 goals in 49 appearances in 2022-23 and 19 goals in 54 appearances last season.
City banked the huge amount of £81m for Alvarez from Atletico Madrid but he has been sorely missed as the goals have dried up this term.
Former academy defender Taylor Harwood-Bellis, now thriving at Southampton, scored on his England debut against the Republic Of Ireland but realistically would have struggled to play regularly at City.
Few would also take issue with City's decision to sell Raheem Sterling to Chelsea, along with Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus to Arsenal, the latter leaving after Haaland's arrival.
It will be all change in the summer with Guardiola's long-time friend and confidante from their days at Barcelona, Txiki Begiristain, leaving as director of football to be replaced by Hugo Viana.
It is hard to believe complacency crept into City's strategy, but there is no doubt the current evidence suggests Viana will need a greater hit rate than in recent years.
Guardiola dismisses the suggestion City have allowed their squad to get too long in the tooth, but this is an ageing group and miles on the clock finally appear to be taking their toll.
Former Liverpool defender and Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher, analysing City's 4-0 Spurs defeat said: "I did this same analysis two years ago on Jordan Henderson and Fabinho.
"What I’m talking about with Gundogan and Kovacic, this is not players out of form, this is not going to change. For Liverpool, the comparison was Jordan Henderson and Fabinto in those positions. They ended up moving on and Liverpool had to rebuild in midfield.
"That's what Manchester City are going to have to do. Whatever Pep thinks of, there is not enough legs in that midfield right now to change what we're seeing."
And how many times can players who have created a glorious era of domestic domination and European success return to the well with the same hunger and intensity after winning six Premier Leagues, the Champions League, two FA Cups, four League Cups, the Uefa Super Cup and the Club World Cup?
Kevin de Bruyne, 34 in June, is increasingly troubled by injuries and has cast doubt on his future at the club. He started 15 Premier League games last season, 26 in all competitions, and just four this season after his latest injury.
England defender Kyle Walker is 34 and has looked increasingly vulnerable this season, although he has also been carrying an injury.
Ilkay Gundogan, also 34, has looked a shadow of the match-winning inspiration he was in his first spell after returning from Barcelona in the aftermath of Rodri's damaging injury.
Defender John Stones is 30, as are midfielders Bernardo Silva and Kovacic.
Measured by Opta stats, City's trademark intensity and running has dropped this season. It has declined from 113.26km per game last term to 109.6km in this campaign, which is also the lowest since their run of successive titles started.
City have also been regularly exposed being caught on the counter-attack this season, facing 1.2 shots on the break - by far the most under Guardiola.
Jurgen Klopp called his Anfield rebuild 'Liverpool 2.0' as Fabinho and Henderson were replaced as the heartbeat by Wataru Endo, Alex Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai, having failed in moves for Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia.
On Monday, Guardiola said again he just needed his injured players back, but has this version of Manchester City reached its own '2.0'?